Xiaomi Heavy Industry, its first entrepreneurial venture!

Chapter 638 Ah! The Auction! (First Update!)

Wichita, Kansas, on the Arkansas River.

A gentle breeze rippled across the river's surface, causing the buoy hanging on the lake to twitch slightly before being abruptly pulled underwater by a fish.

The float dragged the fishing line, and in doing so, dragged along the person in the wheelchair who was fishing on the lakeside.

The man was looking down when he felt the movement in his hand. He belatedly looked up, grabbed the fishing rod with both hands, and pulled back sharply. It looked like a very forceful movement in his hands, but he didn't manage to pull the fish up.

After a brief standoff with the fish in the water, the fisherman shouted behind him:
"Weiss, hurry up and help me!"

As soon as he finished speaking, the middle-aged man who had been standing behind the man and looked like a wooden stake stepped forward, reached his hands through the man's sides, grabbed the fishing rod, and then gently pulled it back.

In less than a minute, the fish was pulled ashore. It was only the size of an adult's palm and was a very ordinary carp.

Dragged ashore, the carp thrashed about on the grass, quickly covering itself in mud.

The mud got into the fish's gills, making the fish even more uncomfortable and causing it to jump around even faster.

In less than five minutes, the fish seemed to have exhausted all its strength, leaving only its tail, which was gently flapping.

In about 10 minutes, the fish turned into a dead fish in the sunlight and began to emit a fishy stench.

Looking at the dead fish, Arna Koch let out two low chuckles, pointed at the fish on the ground, and asked the middle-aged man standing beside him, "Weiss, do I look like this fish?"

Butler Weiss pretended not to hear this and just stood there like a wooden stake, staring intently at the flowing river.

Receiving no response, Alna chuckled, slowly bent down, took out thinly sliced ​​beef from a box on the left side of the wheelchair, and hung it on the fishing hook.

Hold the line firmly, pull the hook with your left hand, grip the fishing rod tightly with your right hand, apply a little force with your left hand to tighten the fishing rod and line, then release. The hook with the beef on it will be launched by the fishing rod and land on the water not far from the riverbank.

After staring at the water for a while, Alna suddenly spoke:
"Weiss, write this down!"

"In the coming years, our political investment should primarily focus on disrupting the Democratic Party's rhythm."

"If it doesn't work in the next election year, then we have to put all our eggs in the basket in the election year after that. It's a four-year cycle, so we can disrupt the rhythm, but if it's eight years, then it will be very troublesome for us."

"If it's 12 years, then we can just go to sleep."

"The political landscape has changed, and we can no longer do things the way we used to."

"You must remind Charles to remember this!"

After he finished speaking, Weiss behind him did not respond. Alna was not surprised, but simply turned his gaze to the river in front of him, to the buoy.

The float remained still, simply bobbing up and down with the river water.

And at that moment, Weiss's voice rang out: "You could have told Charles yourself!"

“No need!” Alna shook his head. “I hope that in his eyes, I am still that wise and mighty father, not a withered ghost who will do anything to live a few more days.”

"I must look really ugly right now!"

Weiss gently turned his head to look at the person sitting in the wheelchair.

His face was almost nothing but wrinkled skin, his eye sockets were sunken, and his high nose, which the Germans were most proud of, looked particularly ugly because of the lack of muscle support, with just a bunch of skin hanging together.

Only a few sparse white hairs remained on his head, swaying gently in the breeze by the river.

They are showing their stubbornness to the wind.

With a sigh, Weiss turned to look at the river:
"You can see yourself when you look at the lake!"

As they spoke, the wind by the river grew stronger. He turned and walked behind Alna, stepped on the brakes of the wheelchair, and, ignoring Alna's cries, pushed him toward the riverside villa.
"It's getting windy, you should go back and rest!"

"I want to go fishing!" Alna tried to flip over in his wheelchair, but it was no use. The wheelchair had restraints, and his strength was no match for the wheelchair's restraints and Weiss's strength.

During the bouncing, he was pushed into the riverside villa.

The heavy door, the moment it closed, shut out the view from the window, and also shut out Alna's thoughts.

In the living room, a professional medical team was already prepared. Upon seeing the two return, they quickly stepped forward to give Alna a full-body examination.

The devices, along with the fingers, wrapped around the arm, feeling icy cold to the touch, making Alna sigh involuntarily.

Just as he sighed, his phone rang in his pocket. He frowned, took out his phone, and saw that the call was from Charles. He answered it and put it on speakerphone to Alna's ear.

"Charles!"

Upon hearing that it was his son on the phone, Alna coughed lightly and asked with a smile:

"Charles, have you made any money lately?"

The person on the other end of the phone was a little confused after hearing such a nonsensical statement, but quickly came to their senses.

"Father, I've been making a good amount of money lately. I'm calling you today because there are some things I need you to look at."

"It's not about the money!"

Hearing that there was something for him to see for himself, Arna sighed.
"Charles, you're over 60 years old. You need to learn to be independent!"

“I can’t be by your side forever. You need to be independent, and you also need to teach your children to be independent.”

"For a family to go far, it must have a capable person."

"Of all my brothers and sisters, I chose you. You must become independent."

Hearing his father's usual refrain, Charles sighed as well. Only after his father finished speaking did he say:

"It's not about business, but about things related to the human body."

"I can't really explain it. I sent the item to Weiss's email address. I'm on my way and should arrive in about an hour."

The call ended at that moment, and Alna wondered what Charles was looking for.

After hanging up the phone, Weiss put his phone away, logged into his email according to the information on the phone, retrieved the attachment from the email, and opened it on his laptop.

The video content was displayed in front of Alna.

This is a video of combat at the Rekdik mine in Pakistan.

After glancing at it for a few moments, Alna looked at Weiss with a puzzled expression and gestured for Weiss to call Charles.

Weiss did as instructed.

But on the phone, Charles told him it wasn't a movie, but rather came from a special email.

Email from the CIA.

The Koch family originated from Germany and was not an old family. Instead, they established Koch Industries by leveraging their expertise in oil cracking technology, and then became America's largest petrochemical company.

Relying on petrochemical enterprises, it gradually gained control of chemical fiber and fertilizer, bulk commodity trading, and in recent years has also ventured into financial services, becoming one of the world's largest private enterprises.

As the leader of such a massive corporation, Alner's insights are truly unparalleled.

But he had never actually seen anything shown in the video. Moreover, America was now the Democratic nominee, and Navarro, that dog of a CIA director, had actually defected to Barack during the presidential election to get the CIA director position.

Now that bastard is sending me this kind of information, his motives are highly questionable.

After a long period of contemplation, Arna raised his head and said to Weiss:

"Use our connections to find out what's going on."

The Koch family were Christians, and because of their faith, they were among the most conservative members of America.

The conservatives naturally support the Republican Party.

America's Central War District is the Republican Party's base.

So, it was only natural that Weiss's call ended up in Brian's hands.

Brian wasn't surprised to learn what the other party was asking, and his answer was simple: those videos were real.

Weiss hung up the phone, slowly turned his head, and whispered to Alna:
"it is true!"

A simple sentence made Alna's gaze fixated on the video.

If seeing the fish struggle made him accept his own death with equanimity...

Now, what this video shows is that God saw his struggle and opened a window for his kindness.

"Call and ask when Charles will arrive!"

"quick!"

Arna shouted the last word, and after shouting it, he braced himself on the armrests of his wheelchair and began to gasp for breath.

Instead of making a phone call, Weiss stood to the side, bent down, and gently patted his back.

With the help of medical staff, Alna coughed up the phlegm in his throat and took a deep breath.

He refocused his attention on his laptop and continued watching the video.

The video was almost over when the door was pushed open.

An older man, who bore a striking resemblance to Arna but looked much younger, walked through the door, took a few steps to Arna, and gave him a hug.
"Father, it's been a long time!"

Upon seeing this, Weiss turned around and sent the medical team away.

Alna didn't catch up with his son Charles. Instead, he raised his withered finger and pointed at the computer screen: "Tell me what's going on here!"

Charles nodded:
"This morning, after I got up, I found an email in my private inbox."

"That email address is known only to senior executives of various companies and a few other people."

"So I assumed it was just a normal company document that required my review."

"I opened the file and found some strange information and strange videos inside."

"I didn't want to watch it at first, but the other party specifically mentioned in the email that the video content was real."

"If you have any ideas, you can reply to this email address with any message."

“I had my team check it out, and they found that the email address belonged to the CIA, so I sent it to you.”

After Charles finished speaking, Alna looked at Weiss: "I just had Weiss call Brian Langley, and he said it's true."

This sentence caused all three people in the room to fall silent.

After a long pause, Alna looked up and said, "I remember our medical company is still missing a product that can suppress the entry barrier, right?"

“Yes!” Charles nodded, naturally understanding his father’s thoughts, and added softly, “I’ll contact them now!”

As he spoke, he took his laptop out of his bag, turned it on, and sent a message to the other party's email address.

The other party responded quickly.

It's just a short line of text.

It seems you've made your choice; you want to live longer.

Charles stared at the sentence for a while, then glanced back at his father and sent a reply to the other party's email address:

Yes, tell me how to get these things!

After sending the message, Charles put his hands on his thighs and rubbed them repeatedly, appearing very anxious.

Seeing his subtle movements, Arna whispered a reminder:
"Don't do those little tricks; such actions make it easy for others to see through your thoughts."

“Father, I will only do this in front of you!” Charles turned back and replied, then turned back again to find that the reply had arrived.

[We cannot obtain this information directly; we only provide intelligence. We have sent a copy of this intelligence to the world's wealthiest individuals, and we will only provide it to the first 10 people willing to pay. If you are less willing to spend money, you can also obtain it from these 10 people. As for the auction time, it is 11:00 AM Washington time tomorrow, and the auction address is this website.]

Along with the message, a website link was also sent.

Charles clicked the website link and waited for the buffering to finish before the website's actual screen was displayed before his eyes.

It's a very basic webpage.

In the center of the black page was a countdown timer. Calculating the time, the countdown ended exactly at the time mentioned in the email.

Below the countdown is a line of text and a button.

[Each bid increases by $5]

As for that button, it's just a simple plus sign.

Upon seeing this page, Alna's suspicions about Navarro vanished instantly; the CIA's dogs were still the same as ever.

George Bush Intelligence Center.

Dmitri sat in front of the computer, his eyes fixed on the screen.

On the screen in front of him was a website backend, and in the most prominent position in the center of the screen was a number.

At that moment, the number suddenly jumped up, from 19 to 22.

Seeing the change in the number, he could no longer contain his excitement. He stood up, grabbed his laptop, walked out of his office, went to the director's office next door, and placed the laptop in front of Navarro.
"22 people!"

"The world's most prestigious families are only this many in number."

"This time, we're sure to make a fortune!"

Unlike his excitement, Navarro's expression froze for a moment after seeing the number, before he slowly raised his head:

"Have you considered that with the combined influence of these 22 families, we might be completely exposed?"

(End of this chapter)